1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a hybrid woven cut-resistant fabric comprising metal wire and non-metallic yarn compositions, to the articles in a variety of end-uses whose performance is significantly improved by their use and to methods of making the hybrid fabric.
2. Background
The integrity of fabrics made with a variety of natural and manmade fibers used in luggage, upholstery, protective clothing, tenting, transportation tarps and architectural membrane coverings are vulnerable to manmade cutting damage, often the result of accidents, robbery or vandalism. While improvements in cut resistance have been driven by industrial, military and security protective requirements they seldom reach the broad retail consumer level due to their high cost. There exists a need for a low cost cut-resistant fabric that combines natural non-metallic yarns with metal fibers.
To date the predominant cut-resistant compositions have been developed to satisfy the need for protection in industrial, military and law enforcement clothing. Most of it is now made with high strength and modulus aromatic polyamide fibers or ultrahigh molecular weight gel-spun polyethylene as major components. Stainless steel wire is in more limited commercial use in specialized gloves used by the meat cutting and deboning industries. To further improve cut resistance, combinations of high performance non-metallic yarns and fabrics with stainless steel and other inorganics have been disclosed in the prior art. These additions of inorganics are uniform and indiscriminate over the entire fabric and ad high weight to the already high cost of the high performance textile.